The Idiots Guide to 5 Core Japanese Noodles and Ramen Is Not the Only One

I have had my idiot moments, but I’m in good company with the number of misguided bloggers, food producers, to media outlets. Regardless of how much information is out there, there are those types that still call any Asian based noodle dish, “ramen.”

To help us from all not being idiots, I have put together a basic guide that even I can follow.

There are three basic components for Japanese noodle dishes

Most Japanese noodles are made up of:

It is all in the details

Ingredients: various types of flour from wheat to buckwheat.

Size: thickness of the noodle.

Broth/Dish: broths are typically made up of soy sauce, katsuobushi, konbu, mirin, and sake.

Toppings: unlike what misinformed food bloggers may want you to believe, bok choy, corn, edamame, shiitake, enoki, and other ‘Oriental’ sounding ingredients are not used or common in authentic Japanese noodle dishes.

1. Ramen

Ingredients: wheat, flour, salt, water and kansui (alkaline water has a high pH which gives ramen its chew and yellow color). Note: fresh ramen is not the same as instant ramen. Instant ramen contains additional ingredients such as oil (for the dehydration process), starches (enhance gelling properties), polyphosphates (improves starch gelatinization), hydrocolloids (enhances water binding capacity during rehydration)Size: thin, medium, to thickColor: yellowishTLDR: this is a ramen noodle.Broth/Dish: shoyu (soy sauce), miso (fermented soy bean), tonkotsu (pork bone), to shio (salt) based soup broths. Toppings: Common toppings are negi (green onions), menma (fermented bamboo shoots), to chashu (roasted pork). Toppings will vary from type of ramen flavor to region.Recipe(s): go to a ramen ya (restaurant), unless you have at least a day to kill just to produce the broth (not to mention, the know how).

Hakata style ramen (mentaiko and tonkotsu).

2. Ito Konnyaku/Shirataki

Ingredients:konnyaku, konjac (the corm), devils tongueSize: mediumColor: white to speckled grey (hijiki/seaweed is added).TLDR: this is not a ramen noodle.Broth/Dish: in sukiyaki and is widely used as a vegan ingredient. Health food fanatics love this noodle because it’s a very low-calorie gluten-free noodle which can be used in a number of strongly flavored dishes.Recipe(s): Justonecookbook.com sukiyaki recipe

4. Somen

Ingredients: wheat flour, salt, and water. Oil (such as sesame oil) is used in the production of the noodles.Size: very thinColor: whiteTLDR: this is not a ramen noodle.Broth/Dish: typically served chilled and eaten in a soy based broth (soy sauce, mirin, konbu, and katsuobushi). Toppings: grated ginger, sliced myoga, and negi (green onions)Recipe(s): NHK World Japan somen noodles

The main issue is that a lot of people unfamiliar to or oblivious of Asians and Asian cuisine lump all Asians under one umbrella. So they mix anything that sounds “Asian” to them which is all of their knowledge dumped in to one giant bukakke spit bucket of Asian’ness (Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Thai, etc.).